The Unconventionals
by Excelcius
Summary: A version of H.o.O. book 5, about some heroes, a magic boat, and some really weird pirates.
1. Annabeth

**AN: Hi! I'm new, and this is my first story. So, enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Well, was Christmas, but I did not receive PJatO or HoO. So, no, I don't own Heroes of Olympus, it belongs to Rick Riordan. I also don't own any pop-culture references I may make. I **_**do**_** own Orion, Ro and Sirius (and Electra, Sisyphus, Pi and Aster, but they don't come in yet).**

**This is set immediately after the end of **_**The House of Hades.**_

_I: ANNABETH_

Annabeth couldn't sleep. Was it something about the way the _Argo II_ was moving, keeping her awake? Maybe because she was in an actual bed for the first time in… how many days had it been? Six, seven? It didn't matter. But every time she closed her eyes she could see Tartarus. She could hear the hissing of… things. She could smell the monsters. It was so salty. Why was Tartarus so salty? No, wait, that was the sea.

The _Argo II_ had headed out to sea for the journey to Athens. Leo had said it would be minimum four days to get there. Maybe five or six if there were any monster attacks. Seven if the attacks severely damaged the ship. Annabeth figured it would take eight days, knowing their luck, and they'd probably have to take a detour to Albania to get supplies… no. She couldn't think like that. It was counterproductive.

She could still taste salt. It was kind of annoying right now. Annabeth knew how irrational that was, being annoyed by salt. But, well, there was nothing she could do. Except, hadn't she read somewhere that milk was a good counter-agent to chloride? And if sugar could counteract sodium … then wouldn't sugary milk counteract salt_? Hmm… interesting theory, _Annabeth thought. _Better go test it._

Annabeth got out of her bed, which Piper had been kind enough to change the sheets of, and squished her feet into some flip-flops which were getting too small. As she walked down the corridor, Annabeth bumped into the walls several times, as her eyes did not seem to have gotten the message about keeping open, and her squished feet were useless in going in the right direction.

In the kitchen, the light was almost blinding, but it figuratively slapped her eyes into keeping open. The clock on the wall said 1:40 AM. Annabeth got out one of Leo's magic glasses and thought, _milk_. The glass did not respond. Annabeth projected the thought louder. _MILK. _Still nothing. _MILK. _Nothing. _MIIILK. MIIIIIIILK. MIIIIIIIIIILK. _

"You have to say it out loud," said a voice behind Annabeth. She jumped a bit, almost smashing the stupid glass. It was Hazel. Her frizzy hair was almost standing on end, and she looked real tired.

"Um, pardon?" Annabeth said, shaking her head to get her brain back in focus-mode. Hazel smiled and repeated, "You have to say it out loud. Some of the glasses need someone to actually say the command out loud. Hey, are you okay?" Hazel looked at her in concern, as Annabeth had just fallen into a chair.

"Yeah, I'm fine. _Milk,_" she said, and milk appeared in her glass. "Hey, can you pass me that sugar bowl next to you?" Hazel looked at it confusedly and passed it to Annabeth, who dumped about four tablespoons into the uncooperative glass of milk.

_BANG-thump. BANG-thump. BANG-BANG-thump. THUMP-BANG. _

"What the heck was that?!" Hazel said, as she and Annabeth looked at the ceiling in alarm. The loud bangs and thumps coming from above the kitchen sounded like they were enough to make the ceiling cave in. Hazel ran from the kitchen, sprinting up the stairs, with Annabeth right behind her. Hazel stopped abruptly and almost sent Annabeth flying down the stairs.

It was very dark on the deck, the only light being on the mast, but Annabeth could make out a giant, moving ball of string on the port side. She had to re-evaluate that thought a second later, when the ball of string started to talk.

"Move yourself, Ro." "I _can't_. I'm under Orion. If Orion would _move_, then so could I, but–" "Shut up, both of you, I can't move either. I'm pretty sure my foot is caught in your backpack." "No, that would be my _jacket_ that your foot is caught in. And by the way, I'm still wearing my jacket." "Boo-hoo, Sirius. Somebody move before anyone hears us." "Too late for that, genius."

Leo and Piper (who had been on duty with Hazel) were running down from where they had been standing, next to Festus, and Annabeth could hear Frank, Percy and Jason running up the stairs. Piper shined a floodlight onto the giant ball of string, which revealed it to actually be three people tangled up in each other.

It took them approximately two seconds to realise there were seven armed demigods staring at them, and another minute to untangle themselves accordingly. Once they stood up, Annabeth could see there was a girl with two rucksacks slung over her shoulders, and two boys; the one with dark hair was holding a leather jacket, and the one with sandy-blonde hair had a wooden crossbow. The girl was looking sideways at the sandy-haired boy, her eyebrows raised and arms folded, and the dark-haired boy was examining his jacket, presumably looking for scratches.

The sandy-haired guy cleared his throat and said, rather awkwardly, "Um… hi. Well, as I'm sure you would rather be in bed, I'll make my request abrupt. We–" Piper cut him off, "What do you mean _request_? It's two in the morning and you're invading our ship!" The girl, who was fixing her hair in a bun, said, "What he means is 'give us your gold'. And, uh, valuables. And food. We're gonna take your pancakes."

Annabeth glanced sideways at Percy, who was, typically, trying not to laugh. He caught her eye and mouthed _'I think I missed something._' Piper, who was pointing her knife at the girl now, said warily, "Um, 'give us your gold, valuables and food'? Who the heck are _you_?"

The dark haired boy, who had finished examining his jacket, said in a _Well, duh_ voice, "We're _pirates_." Piper looked sceptical. "You are, without a doubt, the _worst_ pirates I've ever seen." The boy flashed her a grin. "But you _have_ seen us." Jason stepped forward from his position halfway down the stairs, but before he could say anything, the girl threw something on the floor, which exploded in a cloud of… dirt? But it tasted like chocolate. Had she thrown a _cocoa_ _powder_ grenade on the floor? Anyway, when the cloud cleared, the three 'pirates' were nowhere to be seen.

There were more bangs as more grenades hit the deck. Annabeth could taste citrus, strawberry and vanilla sugar, before one of them exploded right next to her head, and she blacked out, still smelling cinnamon.

**So, that's the end of the first chapter. R&R and tell me what you think. But first, dot point time!**

**. Who are the pirates?**

**. What do they want on the **_**Argo II**_**?**

**. Why are they so bad at hiding?**

**. Can I find a way to make Piper less annoying than she is in canon?**

**. Will anyone find the PotC reference I made?**

**-E**


	2. Annabeth Continued

**Hi! I'm back. Well, I wasn't really gone, but anyway.**

_II: ANNABETH CONTINUED_

"Hey, Sirius, hand me that sack."

"Um, I'm surrounded by sacks. This is practically Sack_ville_. Which sack?"

"The one on your foot. How long do you think they'll be out, Ro?"

"Meh, long enough for us to make pancakes and dance the can-can. Relax, Orion, we've got plenty of time."

"Really? 'Cause Blondie there has just about woken… yeah she's awake."

Annabeth woke with a start, feeling momentary panic. This panic was then replaced by an Olympus-sized headache, and an unpleasant awareness that she was tied to something wooden, presumably the mast. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she was, in fact, tied to wooden pole that was nailed to the ground near the prow. Leo was tied up next to her, and Piper and Frank were tied up on a similar pole opposite her. Percy, Jason and Hazel were tied to the mast.

The girl was standing next to a pile of burlap sacks, piece of paper in hand and ticking something off. The dark-haired boy (whose name Annabeth still did not know) was holding a paper plate and both of them were eating off it. As she watched, the sandy-haired boy walked up the stairs and put down another sack that sounded like it contained metal.

Annabeth focused her fuzzy head and shouted at them, "Hey! What do you think you are doing?"

The sandy-haired boy looked at her in alarm, and then back at the girl, "Ro, you said they wouldn't wake up for a while yet!" The girl (whose name was presumably Ro) shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, I miscalculated. But in case you haven't noticed, she's tied to a pole. This, by the way, was my idea. Portable, expandable pseudo-wooden poles, excellent for tying up inconvenient foils to our plans. I should get an award or something."

Annabeth tried talking again. "Excuse me, but you didn't answer my question. Who are you – and don't say 'pirates' – and what are you doing with our things?"

The dark haired boy smiled again. "Um, stealing it. And I _would_ tell you who we are, but it's none of you business. Pancake?" he added, holding out the paper plate. He turned back to his companions, "Is Abe ready? And can we please get _off_ this boat more elegantly than we got _on_ it?" The girl chucked a sack at him, and sniggered as he almost fell over. "There's your elegance. Now," and she whistled loudly.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then what looked like a ship came sailing out of a cloud, straight towards the _Argo II._ As it got closer, Annabeth could see it was less like a ship and more like a dinghy. It was ridiculously small compared to the _Argo II_, and there was no mast, just a deck with a shack built onto it. It was dark blue, with flecks of silver on the hull, and was sitting on part of a grey cloud.

By this time, everyone Piper and Jason were awake and staring at the pirates. Leo was mutter under his breath in Spanish. It sounded like if translated to English, she still wouldn't know what it meant. Annabeth looked at him (as much as she could, being tied to a pole), his eyes were narrowed and he was glaring at Ro. When she looked back at Ro, Annabeth could see why. Leo's toolbelt was lying next to her foot, and the zipper was open.

The dinghy was still approaching the _Argo II_, but its speed was increasing as it came closer. None of the pirates were looking at it; they were in a huddle around the sacks, piling them up. Frank, who had twisted himself around to look at the dinghy, said loudly, "Um, guys? Your, uh, boat is about to hit us. Seriously, it's travelling _way_ too fast and it's going to–" Frank stopped talking, possibly because he didn't feel like continuing, possibly because the dinghy slammed into the _Argo II _and the pole he was tied to fell over.

Ro turned to the sandy-blonde boy and said, "Orion, I think we may have a problem." _Okay, _Annabeth thought, _so _he's_ Orion. Why do I know that name? Orion was… the hunter! Orion the Hunter! Wait, _thatguy_ is Orion the Hunter? That means the other one must be Sirius. I _know_ that name, but I can't remember who that is. Nobody major, anyway. Still, he's probably dangerous._

Annabeth turned to ask Leo whether he remembered who Sirius was, but Leo wasn't there. She looked around and saw he was on the high-castle (the elevated part of the ship down the poop end). He was aiming one of the blasters at the pirates, particularly Ro. Annabeth watched as he took aim and… slipped over. The blast still fired, but it missed by about half a meter.

However, the force of impact was enough to knock Orion, Ro and Sirius off their feet. Leo ran down the stairs, whooping, and yelled, "_Score_! Even my fails are awesome!"

Not everyone was so thrilled, though. Annabeth's headache wasn't going anywhere. Jason and Piper were still out cold, Hazel looked like she was going to be sick, Frank was pale and sweating, and Percy's nose was bleeding. Annabeth looked sideways at where Leo had been tied. The rope should have been loosened, but when she looked at it more, she could see that she and Leo had been tied on different ropes. So when his one was loosened, hers was still tight. Couldn't he have cut _her_ rope too? And, _argh_, why wouldn't this headache go away? The harder Annabeth tried to reach for her knife, which was in her back pocket, the worse the headache got.

Frank, who was recently untied, came over and cut her rope. "You okay, Frank?" Annabeth asked. "Yeah," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "just… there's something about the rope. I couldn't transform, and I was getting this massive headache, and… well, when I wasn't trying to transform, I was fine. But as soon as I did, and I strained against the rope, the headache came back. Whoa, Annabeth, are _you_ alright?" Frank caught Annabeth's arm as she fell against the pole. She was doing a lot of falling today. The headache was getting worse. "I'm fine, Frank. Nothing's wrong. Are they… the pirates, are they unconscious?" Frank looked over to Orion, Ro and Sirius and nodded.

Percy, who had also been cut loose, came over to where Annabeth and Frank stood. "Hey, are you guys alright? They didn't do anything to you, did they?"

"No," Annabeth said, "I was knocked out by those weird grenades. Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding. Where did I put the first aid kit? Are Jason or Hazel or Piper hurt?" At the sound of Hazel's name, Frank walked over to where she was sitting, propped up against the mast. Percy and Annabeth followed him. Leo, who had been busy looking through the sacks, also walked over.

Annabeth knelt down next to Hazel. "What's wrong?" she asked, as Hazel's eyes were open very wide, and she was clutching her stomach. "Who were they? What were they doing here," Annabeth asked Leo, who was holding Sirius' leather jacket, and going through the pockets. Leo pulled out a wallet and handed it to her. "I don't know. Really, he's got a student ID for some Russian place, looks like a college, but no birthdates I can see. A few cards for pizza places and, uh, video rental stores in what looks like Egypt. There's also a business card for _Allstar Investigations Inc. _Never heard of them, but guess where they have an office," he said, smiling at Annabeth's expression as she read the card and passed it to Percy, who made an O_o face.

It read:

**Ω Allstar Investigations Inc. Ω**

13/597 Empire State Building, New York City, NY

_There is always an answer, even when there's not_

.com

"Catholic cat ladies? What? Who _are _these people?" Percy said, laughing. Frank furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Wait, they have an office on floor 597, Empire State building? There is no floor 597. There's only 102." Annabeth straightened up and replied, "Actually, there are 103. The 102 mortal floors, plus floor 600, which is the entrance to Olympus. I've never even _heard_ of floor 597. But that doesn't really matter right now."

Frank nodded. "Yeah, what matters is: how did these, um, pirates bypass all of your security systems?" he said, looking at Leo, whose euphoria crashed and burned. He shook his head. "I don't know, really. But the systems were only really supposed to detect magical beings; gods, monsters, spirits, that kind of thing. So if my system didn't detect it, then they can't be magical beings or have been using magic. Which is pretty weird, considering they actually managed to _find_ the ship. The only thing I could think of would be if they had a frequency reader, and could detect a vacuum with a total absence of readings, since I stopped all energy coming out of the ship from showing up on energy readers. And if they did, that's also weird, considering how low-tech they are. I mean, ropes and stink bombs? Not exactly NASA, know what I mean?" Leo finished, looking around. Annabeth nodded, but everyone else was looking pretty confused.

"Okay… so I have no idea how this happened. But what do we do now? And what about that – Hazel, what is it?" Hazel had sucked in her breath and ran to the port side of the _Argo II._

"The boat! Where is it? I know it hit the ship, but I can't see it," she said, looking down through the clouds. Percy walked over towards her and stared down as well. "What was it that the girl did?" he said, and whistled loudly, as Ro had done. Everyone who was conscious held their breath, waiting for the dinghy to appear.

It didn't.

Next to Annabeth, Orion was moving. He was almost awake. They needed somewhere to keep the pirates, at least until they could deposit them on land. If they hadn't used magic and the systems hadn't detected them, then Annabeth didn't want to kill them, as they weren't monsters. Probably.

"Hey Leo," Annabeth said, removing her foot from under where a sack had fallen on it and placing it on Orion's back. "Do we have a brig?" Leo, Hazel, Percy and Frank looked at her, and Leo grinned again.

"Yeah, I think so."

**Second chapter **_**done**_**. :) I think I might just write from Annabeth's perspective for the whole story, she's so easy to write. I mean, with Percy or Leo I'd have to be almost constantly witty, and that drains on me. I can't make pop-culture references with Hazel, which I **_**looooove**_** doing. I don't like Piper (but I found a way to make her less annoying: knock her out). Hmm, maybe I'll try Frank or Jason. Also, I try to avoid writing romance, so fluffies should go elsewhere.**

**Dot points!**

**. So, what do you think of the pirates?**

**. What is/are Allstar Investigations, and why do they have an office 597 floors above ground?**

**. What happened to the dinghy (that Ro refers to as Abe)?**

**. Can you guess who Sirius or Ro are?**

**. Catholic Cat Ladies?**

**-E**


	3. Frank

**Hello! E here.**

_III: FRANK_

"_Frank_, watch your feet!" "Sorry, Percy, but I'm walking backwards. I can't watch anything." "There's a step behind y–" _BANG. _

Frank, Percy, Jason and Annabeth were moving the pirates down to "the brig". Read: the stables. Percy had wanted to know why the _Argo II_ had a place for horses, but not prisoners. Leo told him that horses were friendly, pirates were not. Anyway, the pirates must have had lead in their pockets or something, because for a couple of teenagers, they were _heavy_. Right now Frank and Percy were carrying the blonde and the girl (who apparently were Orion and Ro), who were stacked on top of each other. Jason and and Annabeth were carrying Leather Jacket guy, who was apparently called Sirius.

Percy was staring over Frank's head, which was not an easy thing to do. "Alright, Frank, in two steps I want you to turn left." Frank took two steps backwards and promptly fell over. "Oops. I meant two of _my_ steps. Sorry," Percy said. Frank moved Orion's Nikes and Ro's arm off his face. He then stood up and grabbed Orion's shoes. Percy was craning his neck to look around the corner.

"Why do we even _have _corners? I mean, there are seven people on a ship. We don't need that many rooms." Jason said from behind Percy. Percy nodded and said, "Hmm-hmm. Frank, can you kick behind you… now." Frank promptly kicked behind him.

Now, when Leo had made some final repairs after Epirus, he had assured everyone that the whole of the _Argo II _was now built properly and could take a beating, and the doors were reinforced with various steel rods.

When Frank kicked the door, it was flung off its hinges.

Percy was biting his lip, smiling, Jason's mouth made a perfect O and Annabeth was shaking her head. Frank looked behind him in bewilderment and blushed. "Um, I'll fix that later. Come on," he said.

Frank and Percy lowered Orion and Ro down onto a pile of hay in one of the stalls, which were originally meant for the horses that didn't actually turn up. They moved Ro off onto the floor, and propped her head up on the hay. They filed out, and Annabeth and Jason placed Sirius next to Ro, and walked out to join Frank and Percy in the hallway. Annabeth stopped to bolt the door of the stall, which was really quite large, and put something that looked like a heavy-duty bike lock around the bolt.

"Right," she said, turning back around, "What do we do with them? It's, hang on, 2:10 AM. Should we make plans to deal with them now, or wait until later?"

"Well, I think wait until the morning. We should probably question them, find out how they found us, who they work for," said Jason.

"_Why _they're here," Percy added, "They can't have just randomly picked the _Argo II_."

_No,_ Frank thought. _That's too much of a coincidence. But who could have sent them here?_

"Well, we should probably wait for a while, until they wake up," Jason said, "I'll stay here, to make sure nothing happens."

Frank, Percy and Annabeth climbed the stairs to the kitchen, and sank down into their chairs. Hazel joined them. "Leo is up top with Festus, trying to, er, configure something. Piper's up there too. Coach Hedge said that he would Iris-message us in the morning, which coming from him probably means about six o'clock, _aghh…_" Hazel yawned. Frank remembered she'd been awake since nine last night.

"You should get some sleep," Annabeth said, "It looks like you need it."

"Yeah," Hazel yawned again, "Well, okay. 'Night, everyone." And she left via another set of stairs.

Percy was sticking his head into the fridge, looking for something small to eat. The magical plates only worked for full meals, and only then relatively simple ones, or ones it had been programmed to do. So you could have chicken tacos, but not an orange. That was why there was a fruit bowl.

Annabeth sighed, leaning her head onto the table. "I think I might stay up here for a few hours. I won't be able to sleep and Jason might get tired of watching people slee– hey, Percy!" Percy had just thrown a tub of vanilla yoghurt directly in front of her face. The yoghurt was soon followed by a spoon. Frank received a bottle of milk and a packet of muesli. Percy himself was drinking orange juice. From the carton.

Frank shook his head. "That's gross, man. Leo did the same thing yesterday."

Percy promptly spat out the juice he was drinking and wiped his mouth violently with the bottom of his shirt. He then threw the carton in the bin. Annabeth snorted.

"I hope your milk is past its use-by date," said Percy to Frank, walking over to the cupboard and taking an egg-cup. "Soft boiled, please," he said, and the egg-cup complied, even appearing with the top cut off.

Frank resisted the urge to yawn. "You know, I think I might just go back to bed too. I'll get up early, though. If that's okay, I mean."

Annabeth propped her head up on her hands. "Of course it's okay, Frank. Goodnight."

**Okay! Shorter than the previous chapters, but that's fine, right? Anyway, I have nothing to add, soooo… dot points!**

**.What will happen in the morning?**

**.Will the pirates actually be effective at something?**

**.Who sent the pirates to raid the Argo II?**

**-E.**


End file.
